Assay Commission for 1938

TREASURY DEPARTMENT
Washington

FOR RELEASE, MORNING NEWSPAPERS, Press Service
Sunday, February 6, 1938. No. 12—44

Nellie Tayloe Ross, Director of the Mint, will convene the Annual
Assay Commission at 10:00 A.M., Wednesday, in the United States Mint at
Philadelphia for the traditional ceremony marking the yearly "trial of the
coins," Secretary Morgenthau announced today.

Seventeen citizens have been anpointed by the President as members of
the Commission, one of the oldest institutions in the Government, having
been created in 1801 and assembled regularly since that time. There are
three ex-officio members of the Commission.

At all United States Mints, one silver coin of every 2,000 delivered
from the coining room to the Superintendent must, under the law, be taken out
by the Superintendent for test by the Commission, which determines whether
they conform to legal requirements as to their weight and fineness.

The coins are sealed and those from other Mints sent to Philadelphia,
there they are required to be "carefully preserved in a pyx, under the joint
care of the Superintendent and Assayer, for delivery to the Annual Assay Com
mission." The word “oyx! in the law refers to 'pyx-chest, a receptacle for
coins selected for trial," which derives from the early days of the British
Mint.

For the 1938 test, 61,524 coins have been assembled at Philadelphia.

HW, Bearce, Co-Chief of the Division of Weights and Measures of the National

Bureau of Standards, will carry from Washington the official weights of the

Philadelphia Mint, which have been calibrated at-the Bureau of Standards

during the past weck.

The following members of the Commission have been designated by the

President $

Wr, Ralph Steinberg,
101 Park Avenue,
New York, N. Y.

Mr, Albert Voice,
1009 = 66th Avenue,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Mr. Marshall S. Walker,

Talker & Whyte, Inc., (Metallurgists)
409 Pearl Street,

New York, N. Ye

Mr. Me C. Migel,
654 Madison Avenue,
New York, N. Y.

Mr. Prescott B. Paull,
Prosident, Bristol Town Council,
Bristol, Rhode Island.

Mrs. Patience R. Ludlam,
Cape May Court House,
Cape May, New Jersey.

Mr, Dwight Palmer,

Prosident, General Cable Corporation,
420 Lexington Avenue,

New York, N. Ye

lr. Ralph Robinson,
Maryland Trust Building,
Baltimore, Maryland.

ir. George Moore,
Kenilworth Apartments,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Mr. James McGovern,
Bridgeport Times-Star,
Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Mrs. Ruth Bryan Owen Rohde,
7? West 8lst Strect,
New York, N. Y.

Mr. T. A. Duckworth,
Cashier, The Johnstown Bank,
Johnstown, Ohio.

Mrs. William H. Good,
880 St. Marks Place,
Brooklyn, N. Y.

Mr. Edward J. Kelley,
14 Gage Street,
Worcester, Massachusetts.

Mr. H. W. Bearce,

Co-Chief, Division of Weights
and Measures,

Bureau of Standards,

Washington, D. C.

Mr. Frank §S. Davis,
80 Federal Street,
Boston, Massachusetts.

Mrs. Caspar Whitney,
113 Hast 71st Street,
New York, N. Y.

Ex-Officio Members

Paes Oliver B. Dickinson,
udge of the District Court for the
Eastern District of Pennsylvenia.

Honorable J. F. T, O'Connor,
Comptroller of the Currency,
Washington, D.C.

Mr. Joseph S. Buford,

Chief Assayer, United States Assay
Office,

New York, N.Y.